Duct Tape
by Cataclysmic
Summary: “Duct tape is like the force, it has a Light side and a Dark side and it holds the Universe together.” Laney Summers the result a one night stand her mother had after losing her lover, receives a unusual letter addressed not to Laney Summers but to La
1. The Amazing Laney SummersMalfoy

Title: Duct Tape 

Author: Cataclysmic  
Rating: PG- may go up later  
Pairings: None yet. BS/DM past.  
Time line: post S7, Harry Potter 12-13 years after graduation, no OoTP events.  
  
Summary:_ "__Duct tape is like the force, it has a Light side and a Dark side and it holds the Universe together."_ Laney Summers the result a one night stand her mother had after losing her lover, receives a unusual letter addressed not to Laney Summers but to Laney Malfoy her world is set to turn upside down.  
  
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters, props or places that have previously been seen in either BTVS or Harry Potter. 

_"__Duct tape is like the force, it has a Light side and a Dark side and it holds the Universe together."_ _- Unknown_

Chapter 1: Introducing the Amazing Laney Summers-Malfoy 

A strong foot caught her in the midsection and Laney found herself thrown into the opposite wall.

Ouch was the only word to come to mind as she hit. Mentally assessing her condition Laney began to pull herself back up. Had this been for real she would have been on her feet long ago, after all Vampires and Demons didn't really care a lot about how injured you were

"Damn Faith you need to stop wearing those heels, they bloody hurt" Laney cursed as she pulled herself back up. Ouch.

Laney pulled up her blue training shirt and stared at the red mark forming on her stomach, in the form of a boot.

Faith laughed at her from across the room, throwing her a towel.

"Don't be such a baby Lane, it didn't hurt that bad"

Laney frowned looking from the towel to Faith. It was times like this she really hated not being a Slayer, Faith did not have a drop of sweat on her while she herself was sweating heavily. She pouted, and sighed, she couldn't help it, it was blaringly obvious that she would never ever beat Faith in a fight. It was one of the thoughts that had kept her going during her early training 'One day, I'm going to be good enough to wipe that smirk off her face' she had promised herself on her ninth birthday, now on the eve of her eleventh she was ready to face the reality of the situation. She would never beat Faith in a fight, not hand-to-hand or with weapons anyway. One day if she kept up her training with Willow she might get an advantage with magic, but she was doubtful even that would work…

She had to face it, even though her mothers heritage had shown up somewhat in her, increased strength, speed and reflexes she would never measure up to an actual slayer. Both a good and a bad thing.

"Hey how are my favourite girls?" Xander asked as he made his way into the training room. Laney let her shirt drop satisfied that the boot mark wouldn't bruise…too badly.

Faith smiled somewhat evilly to Laney, Laney quick to catch on soon joined in and they both turned and grinned at Xander.

Xander was not stupid, he knew what those looks meant, he didn't need two eyes for that and began to slowly back towards the door.

"Now Girls, wouldn't want to do anything you'd regret now do you?" Laney would bet that sounded hollow and unconvincing even in his own ears.

"Now Xander" Laney started echoing Xander's tone "You wouldn't want my training to suffer now would you, you know I need a training partner closer to my level to practice with…" inwardly grinning in triumph as she noticed Faith had made her way behind him while he was concentrating on her, and was now between Xander and the door.

Xander turned to make a run for it

And ran straight smack bang into Faith's chest, which at any other time would have caused her to make lude comments or beat the crap out of him.

Instead she grabbed him by the shoulders turned him round and shoved him towards Laney who had already taken her fighting stance, smirk firmly in place.

Xander sighed and put his hands up, "Can I at least get some padding here?"

Sparring with Laney was nearly as bad as being a Slayers punching bag, Xander thought, nearly but not quite.

Laney was definitely her mothers daughter.

Laney was a master in the kitchen, no one quite knew where that talent came from as Xander frequently commented, "and She certainly didn't inherit **that** from her mother"

The reason she didn't inherit her mothers cooking habits, Laney thought, was because Andrew not her mother taught her how to cook, and no matter how much they disliked Andrew no one could fault his cooking. Andrew had moved to England to serve as cook there a few years ago but not before he taught Laney to cook, well cookies anyway he had left not long before her mother died.

While mixing the batter for her cookies Laney decided that she should put in some chocolate chips, Faith and Xander both loved anything chocolate chip cookies. Willing the wooden spoon to continue stirring Laney proceeded to search the cupboards and the pantry for the bag of chocolate chips which was notorious for going missing, they not only liked anything with chocolate chips in it but the chocolate chips as well.

Cupboard doors slammed open and closed seemingly of there own accord as Laney searched for the chocolate chips.

Finally giving up on finding them by herself she made her way to the staircase that led up to the library and the main residents of Cleveland House's bedrooms.

"Does anybody know where the chocolate chips are?" Laney shouted up the stairs, where she knew at least two of Cleveland Houses residents were likely to hear her.

"Behind the canister of sugar" came the answer, distinctively Faith.

Sighing in exasperation Laney made her way back into the kitchen, immediately noticing that her laptop, which she had placed on the island table of the kitchen, was flashing with a new message.

It was from her friend Sheri Medlock, one of the few friends Laney had that were not involved in the supernatural, inviting her out to the movies tomorrow.

Smiling Laney typed back that she would love to go and would ring later to confirm that she could come.

Snatching the chocolate chips from behind the canister of sugar Laney chucked a handful into the batter, still stirring itself and turned to turn on the oven.

Laney was in a good mood in the next morning, she was going to the movies with her friend Sheri and her family this morning. She decided it would do her good to do some meditation before she left.

It always bothered her slightly when she went out with her friends and their families, always grated on the raw wound her mother's death left on her, happy smiling faces of their mothers and fathers only served to remind her that her own mother was lost to her, and that she had never known and was never likely to know her father.

It was better to establish her inner calm before she left.

Faith, Giles, Xander, Dawn and Willow were all family, no doubt in her mind about that but sometimes even they could not fill the gap in her life her lack of parents left.

Laney loved their home in Cleveland. The house had been built not long after Uncle Giles gained access to the Watchers Council bank accounts, well the large ones anyway. Cleveland House had been built specifically with Slayers and Watchers in mind, training rooms abounded mainly underground continuing five levels below the surface. The house consisted of about sixteen training rooms in all, a few weapons rooms and over 30 bedrooms. There were three conference/living rooms and four kitchens. Cleveland House was also the home of the North America Slayers Association as well as the North American Watchers Council, hence the conference rooms.

Despite the size of Cleveland House not a lot of the rooms in Cleveland House were permanently filled, most residents of Cleveland House were in and out or moved around the country a lot and just left Cleveland House as a contact address. Cleveland House was usually only occupied by herself, Faith, Grandpa Giles, Uncle Xander, and the occasional slayer or visitor. Usually they all just stuck to the one section of the house.

Aunt Willow and Aunt Dawn were often abroad and thus not a regular part of life at Cleveland House, though they were always home for birthdays and Christmas, even Aunt Willow who is Jewish, well a Jewish pagan witch.

It was around dawn and Laney was meditating in her favourite training room the Buffy Summers Training Room named after her mother when a tapping sound on the grass broke her concentration. Laney turned her head to the wall facing outside, made entirely out of glass, that was one of the reasons this training room was her favourite, apart from the fact it was one of the few that was above ground level, on the second floor, it had also been her mothers favourite training room before her death. The glass would have been a problem for training had it not been magically reinforced by Aunt Willow, since it was reinforced by magic you could be slammed into it and it would feel like just another wall, and as a major bonus, it wouldn't break under your weight and have you fall out the window from the second floor.

What Laney saw at the window actually threw her for a moment. Perched on the small ledge at the bottom of the window was an owl, and it was staring right at her.

Keeping her movements 'quiet' and unthreatening Laney lay down in front of the window and stared at the owl on the other side, which had not moved.

She blinked.

The owl blinked back.

She blinked.

And again it blinked back.

OK that owl was officially weird.

Getting back up Laney walked over to the door still keeping an eye on the owl.

"Faith, Xander, Giles!" she yelled out as loud as she could, at least one of them had to have heard her.

It wasn't long before she could see Grandpa Giles making his way down the hallway.

"Laney what is it?" Grandpa Giles asked taking his glasses off and cleaning them, oops he must have been doing something, 'Oh well' she thought.

She pointed at the owl perched on the ledge, it still had not taken its eyes off her.

Giles put his glasses back on when he saw her fuzzy outline pointing at something.

"Oh dear lord"

His efforts at polishing his glasses redoubled.

Giles made his way over to the glass wall and opened one of the glass panels allowing the owl access to the house. The owl seemingly hooted in thanks to Giles before flying over to Laney.

Instinctively Laney raised her arm to block the owl but instead of flying right into her the owl landed on her outstretched arm.

It was at this point that she noticed the owl had something strapped to its leg. Something which looked suspiciously like an envelope.

Blinking at it curiously Laney turned her gaze to her Grandpa Giles who was looking at her with a mixture of pride and something she couldn't quite put her finger on Grandpa Giles made a motion for her to take the envelope off the owls leg.

Inwardly shrugging Laney complied, it was somewhat awkward trying to do so with only one hand but she somehow managed it. The owl relieved of its burden flew over and perched itself on the balance beam looking quite smug with itself.

Turning her attention to the envelope Laney frowned in confusion for written on the front was

Laney Malfoy

5th Largest Bedroom on Level 3,

Cleveland House, Cleveland Ohio

United States of America.

"Huh?"


	2. Of Letters

Title: Duct Tape

Author: Cataclysmic

Rating: PG- may go up later

Pairings: None yet. BS/DM past.

Time line: post S7, Harry Potter 12-13 years after graduation, no OoTP events.

Summary: "Duct tape is like the force, it has a Light side and a Dark side and it holds the Universe together." Laney Summers the result a one night stand her mother had after losing her lover, receives a unusual letter addressed not to Laney Summers but to Laney Malfoy her world is set to turn upside down.

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters, props or places that have previously been seen in either BTVS or Harry Potter.

"Duct tape is like the force, it has a Light side and a Dark side and it holds the Universe together." - Unknown

Chapter 2: Of Letters.

Laney looked up at her Grandpa Giles her eyes wide with confusion.

"Giles, what is this?" flapping the letter in her hand in his direction, it was so much easier not to add Grandpa to his name every time she spoke to him, generally she only called him that when she was in public or wanted something. She was hoping he would have an answer, after all Grandpa Giles always seemed to know what was going on. Hopefully he would know what this was all about as well.

"Open the letter it will explain everything better than I can"

Well that was better than nothing she supposed.

Eyebrows furrowed in confusion Laney turned her attention back to the letter in her hand. Noting the wax seal on the back of the envelope Laney ran her fingers under the edge hoping that it would open. The seal broke surprisingly easily. The seal should have been her second clue that something strange was going on, the first having been the owl but she was too caught up in her confusion over the name on the front to contemplate possible implications.

Her eyes widened slightly as she read the letter.

Ms. Malfoy,

You have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry…

As she scanned the letter she still could not find the answer to her primary question. What was with the Malfoy business and was this a joke? to a kid who had grown up with demons, vampires and magic the idea of a magic school was slightly strange but not awe inspiring. The likelihood of the letter being a practical joke though, an elaborate joke to be sure but a joke none the less was however incredibly higher. Especially with all the strange whacked-out people she knew.

Laney raised her eyebrow, not really convinced with the letters authenticity, after all who would address a serious letter to Laney Malfoy when everybody knew her name was Laney Summers.

"Giles that still doesn't explain why the letter is addressed to Laney Malfoy."

The front door of Cleveland House banged open as Faith returned home laden with a bag of groceries. Kicking the door shut behind her Faith dropped her keys on the table by the door and made her way through the dining room towards the kitchen where she was surprised to find Giles cleaning his glasses and Xander reading from an ancient looking piece of paper.

Faith took a deep breath before entering the kitchen, polishing of glasses and ancient looking book, paper or manuscript could not lead to anything good in her book.

She had settled down a lot in the last decade or so, yeah she still thought dusting vamps patrol and guys were the best parts of her day but apocalyptic events were no longer any fun in her opinion. She had too much to lose now. Like Lanes.

"What's up?" Faith asked as she dropped her burden off on the island of the kitchen table before perching herself said table facing Giles and Xander, their faces painted with serious expressions. Lanes was there as well she noticed, which could be a good or a bad sign. She must have missed spotting Lanes on the way in, sometimes the girl could remain as unnoticed as a fly if you weren't looking for her, years of eavesdropping practice and spying was her guess. She knew for a fact Lanes had found a way to get past the advanced senses that were often present in Cleveland House, and that was only because she had been late once and had caught her outside a door.

Faith was extremely surprised she could have missed Laney today though; she had never ever seen her this excited before, though she was restraining herself. It surprised her she was still sitting still she looked that excited. They had been here a while by the looks of things. Xander and Giles seemed a little off, worried and confused respectively. The ancient bit of paper seemed to be the responsible party, as they all seemed to be sending it glances every so often.

Faith had to admit, she was curious it wasn't often you came across something that got Laney this excited or Giles confused. Xander she could understand, a lot got him worried these days, he had never really been the same after Anya died.

Xander smiled at her slightly, reassuring her that this was nothing of apocalyptic proportions, as if she couldn't have guessed already and passed her a few sheets of the ancient looking paper, which was seemingly addressed to Laney…though…she didn't know what that Malfoy thing was about

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?" she finally asked raising an eyebrow. "Never heard of it"

"What I wanna know is what is with this Malfoy business?" Xander piped in.

"Maybe they sent it to the wrong person?" Faith suggested with a shrug. Laney looked slightly disappointed at the idea.

Everyone looked to Giles, he was the man with the answers after all. Well he usually had the answers anyway, and it never hurt to ask Giles.

Giles sighed "I believe it to be a genuine offer" Giles finally replied. "My elder brother was schooled at Hogwarts, and I believe the letter found the right owner had it not I believe the owl would have returned the letter to the school."

"So it's legit." Faith asked

"Yes Faith it is a legitimate offer"

"Though for the life of me I cannot think why she would get an offer from England, it is general practice for the child to be schooled in their home country." Giles continued

"Hang on a sec" Faith said after a pause "Did you say owl?"

Laney pointed to the corner where the owl who had delivered the letter was perched.

"Owl." she stated.

Faith looked at it with open curiosity.

"So you're telling me that an owl carried that ancient looking paper here all the way from England?"

"Parchment, Faith, Parchment and yes."

"Must have taken some stamina." she commented.

"So, what about this Malfoy thing?" Xander asked slightly annoyed at being left out of the conversation. "What does that mean?"

"Well I am not entirely sure how wizarding post works, I was never very close to my brother and after his death I had no contact with that world whatsoever, however the use of the surname is obviously significant in some way."

No one thought to mention Laney's father, so far as they were concerned Laney was a Summers, her mother had not been married to her father so that made her a Summers. The thought crossed their minds of course but no one, including her mother had known her fathers name, not even his first name. As far as they were concerned her father did not exist. Laney Summers had no father. She had something better, multiple father figures.

"Just to be sure the voice of reason has spoken here" Xander put in "A school that no one but Giles has heard of sends Lanes a letter inviting her to a magic school in another country that doesn't usually offer places to foreigners, as far as we know. Not only that the letter isn't addressed to Laney Summers but to Laney Malfoy, is anyone but me thinking this is just a little bit suspicious?"

"We hear what you are saying Xander…" Giles said

"But?" he asked knowing there would be a but, there was always a but.

"But I believe it should be Laney's decision."

Faith nodded in agreement "Lanes?"

"I want to go." Laney said determinedly, knowing that despite it being her decision whether or not to go by choosing to go there would be strings attached.

Giles, Xander and Faith frowned, they knew her to well and had already guessed what her answer would be but that didn't mean they weren't holding out hope.

"Well Laney if this is what you want…" Faith started, "You are going to have to get some serious training done before you go, never know what might go down with those magic types"

Giles continued "And there will be conditions and precautions you understand?"

Laney nodded to both of them, nothing she had not expected.

"OK why don't you head up to your room and start packing while we make the arrangements. You will need to be in England in a week's time at least." Giles said

"A week!" exclaimed Faith "cutting it a bit fine aren't they?"

Giles frowned at her. Laney made her way up the stairs she heard them continue the conversation behind her.

"But England, G-Man, I don't know…" she heard Xander continuing, "And what about this Malfoy thing?" Xander piped up as the door closed.

"We will have to find the answers when we get there."


End file.
